3 Biotech (2020) 10:385

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-020-02369-0

REVIEW ARTICLE

Biosensors: frontiers in rapid detection of COVID‑19

Rachel Samson1,2 · Govinda R. Navale1,2 · Mahesh S. Dharne1,2 

Received: 8 June 2020 / Accepted: 27 July 2020 / Published online: 11 August 2020
© King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2020

Abstract
The rapid community-spread of novel human coronavirus 2019 (nCOVID19 or SARS-Cov2) and morbidity statistics has
put forth an unprecedented urge for rapid diagnostics for quick and sensitive detection followed by contact tracing and
containment strategies, especially when no vaccine or therapeutics are known. Currently, quantitative real-time polymerase
chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is being used widely to detect COVID-19 from various types of biological specimens, which is
time-consuming, labor-intensive and may not be rapidly deployable in remote or resource-limited settings. This might lead
to hindrance in acquiring realistic data of infectivity and community spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the population. This review
summarizes the existing status of current diagnostic methods, their possible limitations, and the advantages of biosensor-
based diagnostics over the conventional ones for the detection of SARS-Cov-2. Novel biosensors used to detect RNA-viruses
include CRISPR-Cas9 based paper strip, nucleic-acid based, aptamer-based, antigen-Au/Ag nanoparticles-based electro-
chemical biosensor, optical biosensor, and Surface Plasmon Resonance. These could be effective tools for rapid, authentic,
portable, and more promising diagnosis in the current pandemic that has affected the world economies and humanity. Present
challenges and future perspectives of developing robust biosensors devices for rapid, scalable, and sensitive detection and
management of COVID-19 are presented in light of the test-test-test theme of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Keywords  Biosensors · SARS-CoV-2 · COVID-19 · Rapid detection

Introduction COVID-19) as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coro-

navirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Lu et al. 2020). Since 12th March
In December 2019, severe respiratory distress, with pneu- 2020, the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 has been declared as
monia-like symptoms was reported in Wuhan, China. The Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
metagenomic RNA sequencing from the bronchoalveolar by the WHO. To date, over fifteen million cases have been
lavage fluid of the infected patients identified a new RNA recorded across the globe. Besides the health crisis, the
virus (Zhou et  al. 2020b). Later, the phylogenetic and SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has also brought a socioeconomic
genomic analyses revealed that the virus shares a close crunch across the globe (Nicola et al. 2020). Until now, there
genetic resemblance to the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory are no specific treatment approaches or vaccines to confine
Syndrome) like coronavirus (Lu et al. 2020). Subsequently, the outbreak, like these under clinical trial stages (Hamid
the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses et al. 2020). Therefore, there is a necessity for immense
(ICTV) renamed the novel coronavirus (2019-nCOVID/ diagnostic measures to curb the unprecedented virus trans-
mission and to aid in the rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 and
understand its epidemiology for therapeutic advancement.
Rachel Samson and Govinda R. Navale contributed equally to this
work. SARS-CoV-2 has an incubation period of 2–7  days,
before the onset of the infection. This stage is mostly asymp-
* Mahesh S. Dharne tomatic and contagious as the virus can spread from one
[email protected] infected person to the other healthy one (Chan et al. 2020).
1
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR),
The existing number of infected cases and the actual case
Ghaziabad, India fatality ratio (CFR) of the COVID-19 infected patients is
2
CSIR‑National Chemical, Laboratory, National Collection
still unclear due to a lack of uncertainties in quantifying or
of Industrial Microorganisms (NCIM), Biochemical Sciences detecting the infection (Bohk-Ewald et al. 2020). Therefore,
Division, Pune, India

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the extent of this pandemic is still notional. Testing people or consideration the versatility of viruses and their replication
a mass population for any viral infection involves biosensing niches. Implementation of these methods must ensure higher
of presence or absence of analytes such as viral nucleic acids accuracy, ease of operation and portability, and large-scale
(DNA and RNA), viral proteins, intact viral particles, and availability to test the mass population. The purpose of this
antibodies generated by the patient immune response against review is to comprehend our understanding of different types
the virus (Guliy et al. 2019). The list of all viral diagnostic of biosensors used in the diagnosis of viral respiratory infec-
methods is summarized in Table 1. tions, the recent advancement in trends of biosensor research
Although a significant number of methods are available for detection of SARS-CoV-2, and prospects of biosensors in
for detecting virus particles, there are several difficulties, rapid diagnosis of the mass population to contain the spread
that restrict the practical use of these methods. These limita- of this virus.
tions include:

1. Lower accuracy and sensitivity Biosensors in the detection of human

2. The need for sample preparation and purification respiratory viruses
3. Time-consuming
4. Higher instrument, accessories, and maintenance cost Sensors consist of chemical or biological receptors and
5. Large-scale availability transducers. The receptor interacts specifically with a tar-
6. The complex operation of the instruments get analyte and the transducer converts the recognition pro-
7. A requirement of highly qualified technical personnel cess into a quantitative signal (Ozer et al. 2020). Biosen-
8. Not suitable for rapid, on-site analysis sors are analytical devices in which biological recognition
molecules such as enzymes, antibodies, or nucleic acids are
Therefore, there is a need for newer, efficient methods coupled with a transducer and a detector that detects the
for the rapid detection of viral analytes, which takes into interacted analyte and gives a digital output. Biosensors can

Table 1  Summary of viral diagnostic methods

Diagnostic tests References

Nucleic acid detection and amplification Fouchier et al. (2000), Storch (2000), Poon et al. (2005), Zhou et al. (2012), Sasaya (2015)
 PCR, RT-PCR, qPCR and Souf (2016)
 Isothermal amplification technologies: (NASBA;
LAMP; HDA; RCA; NEAR; SDA; TMA)
Immunoassays Gupta et al. (2015), Mixson-Hayden et al. (2015) and Cebeci Güler and Tosun (2017)
 Fluorescent antibody (FA) Staining
 Hemagglutination inhibition
 Immuno-peroxidase Staining
 EIA/ELISA (FPIA, MEIA, CLIA)
DNA sequencing Chiu et al. (2008), Léveque et al. (2014), Fischer et al. (2015), Thorburn et al. (2015),
 Sanger sequencers Wylie et al. (2018), Jerome et al. (2019), Huang et al. (2019) and Lewandowski et al.
(2020)
 Next-generation sequencers
 DNA microarrays
Mass spectrometric methods Léveque et al. 2014) and He et al. (2014)
 MALDI-TOF
Direct visualization of viruses Curry et al. (2006), Schramlová et al. (2010), Gabaldón and Carreté (2016) and Roingeard
 Electron microscopy et al. (2019)
Microelectronics and microfluidics based techniques Foudeh et al. (2012, Szabó et al. (2015), Dak et al. (2016), Koo et al. (2017), Soler et al.
 Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies (2019) and Zhu et al. (2020a)
 Point of care (POC) testing
 Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) technique

PCR polymerase chain reaction, qPCR quantitative polymerase chain reaction, RT-PCR real-time polymerase chain reaction, NASBA nucleic
acid sequence-based amplification, LAMP loop-mediated isothermal amplification, HDA helicase dependent amplification, RCA​ rolling circle
amplification, NEAR nicking enzyme amplification reaction, SDA Strand displacement amplification, TMA transcription-mediated amplification,
EIA/ELISA enzyme immunoassay/enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, ESI electrospray ionization, FPIA fluorescence polarization immunoas-
say, MEIA Micro-particle enzyme immunoassay, MALDI-TOF Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight

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be applied for medical diagnosis, environmental monitoring,

food, water, and agricultural product processing are known
(Rodovalho et  al. 2015). Viral biosensors offer exciting
alternatives to traditional diagnostic assays and can provide
inexpensive, sensitive, rapid, miniaturized, and portable
platforms when compared to conventional laboratory-based
methods (Souf 2016).
In the past few decades, the innovation of biosensor
research has witnessed an exceptional and exponential surge
in the development and performance, due to advancements
in transduction systems, nanotechnology and genetic engi-
neering offer various strategies to improve the detection
performance of biosensors (Cheng and Toh 2013). Based Fig. 1  Schematic structure of SARS-Cov-2 and its possible targets for
on technology incurred, there are four types of biosensors diagnosing
viz, Optical biosensors, Electrochemical biosensors, Piezo-
electric biosensors, and Thermal biosensors (Saylan et al. which insist on immediate immune response upon binding
2019). A summary of different biosensor platforms for the to the host ACE-2 receptors (Liu et al. 2020). The humoral
detection of respiratory viral infections is listed in Table 2. response is mediated by IgM and IgG antibodies, that are
used to detect the COVID-19 disease and also used for its
possible therapy known as plasma therapy (Chen et al. 2020;
Recent trends in biosensors for detection Zhang et al. 2020).
of SARS‑CoV‑2 To overcome the issues mentioned above with conven-
tional methods such as Lateral Flow Assay, ELISA, and
The COVID-19 pandemic is becoming more severe due to its colorimetric assay, etc. are time-consuming as well as low
continued global spread and the unavailability of appropriate accuracy techniques. Many researchers worldwide are work-
therapy and diagnostics systems. International health agen- ing on affordable, rapid, and highly sensitive methodologies
cies are making serious efforts to manage the COVID-19 or devices to detect ‘the deadly viral pathogen’. To over-
epidemic by exploring every aspect of therapy development come limitations of qRT-PCR based assay, a recently highly
with special attention to investigating smart diagnostics tools specific RT-LAMP (Reverse Transcription Loop-Mediated
needed for rapid and selective detection of the COVID-19 Isothermal Amplification) assay based method is available
protein. The quest for rapid testing of mass populations for for detection of SARS-CoV-2 (Zhu et al. 2020b; Park et al.
COVID-19 was documented by innovative methods in bio- 2020; Yu et al. 2020). In addition to the conventional RT-
sensor development (Nguyen et al. 2020). All possible tar- LAMP method, Zhu et al., evaluated the one-step RT-LAMP
gets of SARS-CoV-2 are depicted in Fig. 1 for testing viral mediated with Nanoparticles-Based Biosensor (NBS),
genomic RNA, membrane proteins, and spike glycoproteins, RT-LAMP-NBS assay for rapid and accurate diagnosis of

Table 2  Types of biosensors for respiratory virus detection

Types of portable Biosensor Virus Recognition element Other viruses detected References

Electrochemical Bio/Immu- Influenza A virus M1 protein Parainfluenza; Rhinovirus; Schmidt and Hawkins (2016),
nosensor Middle East respiratory Dziabowska et al. (2018)
syndrome coronavirus and Saylan et al. (2019)
(MERS); Severe acute
respiratory syndrome
(SARS-CoV)
Optical Bio/Immunosensor MERS Recombinant Spike protein SARS-CoV; ­H5N1 influenza Layqah and Eissa (2019),
S1 (Human betacoronavirus virus; Human Adenovirus; Ravina et al. (2020) and
2c EMC/2012) Respiratory Syncytial Virus Santiago 2020)
(RSV);
Piezoelectric immunosensor SARS-CoV Spike protein S1 Influenza Virus; Adenovirus; Kizek et al. (2015), Yuan and
RSV; MERS Han (2016) and Lee et al.
(2018)
Thermal Biosensor SARS-CoV RNA-dependent RNA poly- MERS; SARS-CoV-2 Saylan et al. (2019) and Woo
merase (RdRp) gene et al. (2020)

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SARS-CoV-2. In this assay, LAMP primer sets, F1ab (open- 2014; Navale et al. 2015b, c). The gene-editing technique
ing reading frame 1a/b), and np (nucleoprotein) genes of was modified as a biological sensor using CRISPR-Chip
SARS-CoV-2 were simultaneously amplified and detected coupled with a graphene-based Field Effect Transistor (FET)
in a one-step and single-tube reaction, and NBS could easily that can detect up to 1.7 fM quantity of nucleic acid with-
interpret these detection results. The sensitivity of SARS- out the need for amplification within a short span of 15 min
CoV-2 RT-LAMP-NBS was 12 copies (each of the detection (Hajian et al. 2019). Recently, it was also established for
targets) per reaction. This made it less error-prone in ampli- the detection of COVID-19 infection in less than 40 min.
fying the non-SARS-CoV-2 templates, thus giving a higher The CRISPR–Cas12-based lateral flow assay technique is
specificity and low false positives results. Additionally, this easy to implement and an accurate and good replacement
report revealed 100% sensitivity for the detection of COVID- for real-time RT-PCR based diagnostics (Schematic Fig. 2a)
19 in clinical samples (oropharynx swab samples) and it (Broughton et al. 2020). The FET-based biosensing devices
took about one hour for detection (Zhu et al. 2020b). Fur- utilize the coating of the graphene sheets of the FET with
ther, the use of modern gene-editing CRISPR-Cas (Clustered a monoclonal antibody against the SARS-CoV-2 spike pro-
Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) system tein (Fig. 2b). They determined its sensitivity using antigen
for the detection of the virus was studied (Zuo et al. 2017). protein, cultured virus, and nasopharyngeal swab specimen
This technique can also detect bacteria, microRNAs, and from COVID-19 patients. This FET biosensor device could
cancer mutations, in a simple and easily scalable manner, detect 1 fg/mL concentration (conc.) of SARS-CoV-2 spike
merely by changing target-specific crRNA/sgRNA. Recently, protein in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and 100 fg/mL
nanoparticles (NPs) gained enormous interest due to their conc. in the clinical transport medium (Seo et al. 2020).
biological activity and sensing properties (Holzinger et al. Numerous nanoparticle-based electrochemical biosensor

Fig. 2  Biosensors for SARS-CoV-2 virus detection. a CRISPR based via 1-pyrenebutyric acid N-hydroxy-succinimide ester, which is an
nucleic acid (RNA) detection. RNA transcripts containing the target interfacing molecule, as a probe linker (Seo et al. 2020). c The FTO
sequence (green) are recognized by RNA guided Cas endonuclease electrode consist sensing area made up of AuNPs conjugated with
and CRISPR-RNA (Cr-RNA) carrying the complementary sequence. nCOVID-19 Ab either by physisorption or electrostatic bonding
The formation of the Cas-crRNA-RNA-transcript tertiary complex (Mahari et al. 2020). d Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) based bio-
switches on the ‘collateral cleavage’ activity, thereby dramatically sensor for COVID-19 detection. Activation of the AffiCoat surface,
applying the fluorescent signal in the presence of the target RNA. Q the nucleo-capsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 are bound to the SPR chip,
quencher, F fluorophore (Zuo et  al. 2017; Broughton et  al. 2020). b and remaining activated sites were passivated with ethanolamine. e
Schematic diagram of COVID-19 FET based biosensor operation. Schematic diagram of the 2D gold Nanoislands (AuNIs) functional-
SARS-CoV-2 spike antibody is conjugated onto the graphene sheet ized with complementary thiol-cDNA ligands

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devices are also known for virus detection (Caygill et al. antibodies or immunoglobulins could be the approach
2010). Recently Mahari et al., developed an in-house built for developing new biosensors for COVID-19 infection.
biosensor device (eCovSens) which were fabricated with Recently, several host biomarkers such as hematological
Fluorine Doped Tin Oxide (FTO) electrode together with (lymphocyte count, neutrophil count, neutrophil–lym-
gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and nCOVID-19 antibody. They phocyte ratio (NLR)), inflammatory (C-reactive protein
are very specific to detect the nCOVID-19 spike antigen. At (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), procal-
optimal conditions, these FTO-Immunosensor could detect citonin (PCT)), immunological (interleukin (IL)-6 and
the nCOVID-19 antigen, ranging from 1 fM to 1 µM concen- biochemical (D-dimer, troponin, creatine kinase (CK),
trations. This eCovSens device can detect nCOVID-19 anti- aspartate aminotransferase (AST)), especially those
gen at 10 fM concentration in a standard buffer. This device related to coagulation cascades in disseminated intravas-
displays the results rapidly, within 10–30 s (Fig. 2c) (Mahari cular coagulation (DIC) and acute respiratory distress
et al. 2020). Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and Local- syndrome (ARDS) are identified. Other novel biomarkers
ized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) based viral biosen- can be identified through the accurate analysis of multiple
sors were referred earlier (Park et al. 2009; Lee et al. 2018). case studies, in particular, homocysteine and angioten-
These thermoplasmonic techniques are highly applicable in sin II could play a significant role (Ponti et al. 2020). In
nucleic-acid detection and also in viral disease diagnosis. recent years, nanomaterials such as gold and carbon have
Recently, this SPR based sensor was reported for detect- gained vast interest in sensor technology and have pro-
ing nucleocapsid antibodies, which were specific against duced promising devices for sensing the virus and its bio-
the SARS-CoV-2 in undiluted human serum instead of oro- molecules. These nanomaterials fused with analyte such
pharynx swab. This SPR sensor coated with a peptide mon- as complementary single-stranded nucleic acid aptamer
olayer and functionalized with SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid’s could be a new strategy for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in clin-
recombinant protein detected anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies ical samples. Aptamers are single-stranded RNA or DNA
in the nM range. Thus, this bioassay is rapid, label-free oligonucleotides which depend on hydrogen bonding,
which can diagnose samples within 15 min of sample/sen- electrostatic, and hydrophobic interactions, and they rep-
sor contact (Fig. 2d) (Djaileb et al. 2020). For the detection resent an alternative to antibodies as recognition agents.
of current pandemic (SARS-CoV-2), dual-functional, plas- Aptamer based bio-nanogate bifunctional biosensor spe-
monic biosensor Plasmonic Photothermal (PPT) and LSPR cifically respond to the viral surface spike protein S1 as a
were also explored. The 2D gold nanoislands (AuNIs) func- target molecules, and control enzymatic reaction for elec-
tionalied with complementary DNA (cDNA) receptors and trochemical measurements (Fig. 3a) (Wang et al. 2015;
combining PPT effect and LSPR sensing technique, provides Acquah et al. 2016). The current scenario is heading in
an alternative and promising solution for the detection of developing sensitive, portable, and space-friendly biosen-
clinical COVID-19 by nucleic acid hybridization (Fig. 2e). sor devices. Electrochemical based biosensors are based on
This dual-functional LSPR biosensor exhibits a high sen- electrode material and form factor, and widely being used
sitivity towards the selected SARS-CoV-2 sequences, with for virus detection based on, antibodies, aptamers, and
a detection limit up to 0.22 pM conc. which allows precise imprinted polymers (Cesewski and Johnson 2020). Ebola
detection of the specific target in a multigene mixture (Qiu virus was diagnosed using the electrochemical-based
et al. 2020). DNA-sensing device, by an enzyme-amplified detection,
which improved the sensitivity and selectivity of the sen-
sor. As shown in Fig. 3b, the thiolated DNA capture probe
Future perspectives of biosensors sequence has been immobilized on the screen-printed
for the detection of SARS‑CoV‑2 electrode surface and hybridized with biotinylated target
strand DNA. This strategy could be useful for detecting
Currently, to overcome this 2020 pandemic of SARS- the SARS-CoV-2 virus by changing the immobilized thi-
CoV-2, there is much interest in developing rapid, reli- olated nucleic acid sequence. This technique could detect
able, and sensitive novel biosensors for COVID-19 diag- 4.7 nM conc. of complementary nucleic acids. This bio-
nostics which would be a single step identification or sensor is selective and yields reproducible results (Ilkhani
sensing method that eliminate separation (extraction of and Farhad 2018). Another electrochemical, paper-based
nucleic acid), incubation or use of any signal-reporting biosensor was deployed for the detection of the chikun-
agents. Biosensors for COVID-19 are mostly designed on gunya virus. These electrochemical paper-based biosen-
the surface nucleoproteins, which binds to the host angi- sors used the ultra-high charge-transfer efficiency AuNPs
otensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) receptor and the associated with magnetic NPs (Fe2O4). This paper-based
internal genetic material; is very specific (Liu et al. 2020). biosensor is simple, sensitive, biodegradable, and eco-
Detection of biomarkers from human hosts different from nomic for mass production. The detection of COVID-19

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Fig. 3  Schematic representa-
tion of possible biosensors
for detecting SARS-CoV-2. a
Aptamer based Bio-nanogate
biosensor for virus spike
protein-specific detection. b
Electrochemical biosensor for
detecting nucleic acids in the
sample. c DhITACT-TR Chip
for robust detection of target
pathogen in a single-step injec-
tion of RNA extract

needs to be modified as per the specificity of the virus This biosensor could also detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus
(Singhal et al. 2018). Meso/macroporous cobalt (II) oxide (Huang et al. 2009). Similarly, Park et al. (2009) revealed a
nanoflakes based electrochemical biosensor could detect self-assembled fusion protein-based SPR biosensor for rapid
0.28 ng/μL conc. of specific RNA/DNA samples (Moham- and acute diagnosis of the SARS virus.
madi et al. 2017). Ionic liquids are the well-known solvents, that are syn-
For developing new biosensors, non-labeling techniques thesized by various combinations of cations and anions, and
such as SPR, Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) widely used in green chemistry and other biological applica-
and Quartz-Crystal Microbalance (QCM) technologies tions (Navale et al. 2015a; Venkatraman et al. 2019). Most of
have shown promising development in biosensor research the biosensors or other viral detection methods are required
for viral samples. Such biosensors are in use for the detec- quick and stable RNA extraction steps. Lately, hydrophobic
tion of RNA viruses, such as influenza A/B, SARS-Corona, magnetic ionic liquids are used for isolation of RNA (as
Ebola, MERS, Zika, and Dengue (Ilkhani and Farhad 2018; well as DNA) and also aided in the preservation of RNA,
Soler et al. 2019). Ngo et al., developed a plasmonic SERS- and hence it could be used during the initial step of viral
active nanowave chip for single-step detection of nucleic RNA extraction. Recently Zhou et al., developed a DNA
acid. These techniques could also be used to develop a new nano switch; an automated, low-cost, and rapid detection
biosensor for COVID-19 detection, as they allow detection method for RNA viruses specifically using the Zika virus
of host genetic biomarkers for respiratory viral infection and as a model system. This method detects viruses in a non-
a specific nucleic acid sequence (Ngo et al. 2016). The Ag- enzymatic manner and could detect at nanomoles of an
NPs hybridization in a quartz crystal microbalance DNA- RNA virus. This assay requires only a sample preparation
QCM sensing system might be useful for the detection of step using either RNA extraction or isothermal pre-amplifi-
RNA viruses over the conventional PCR based approaches cation. Recently, similar authors also evaluated such auto-
(Chen et al. 2009). Detection of nucleocapsid protein is one mated DNA nano-switches to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in
of the keys to detecting viruses. Localized Surface Plasmon human saliva (Zhou et al. 2020a). A novel DNA hydrogel
Coupled Fluorescence (LSPCF) fiber-optic biosensor was formation by isothermal amplification of complementary tar-
studied a decade ago for diagnosing different SARS viruses. get (DhITACT-TR) system has been successfully used for
This plasmon-based biosensor has combined sandwich detection of the MERS virus, which is highly sensitive and
immunoassay with the LSP technique and detects 0.1 pg/ could be diagnosed by the naked eye, as well as fluorescent
mL to 1 ng/mL SARS-CoV N protein in serum samples. detection within a short time (Fig. 3c). This biosensor is

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as rapid cum portable RNA extraction preps, CRISPR-Cas

based paper strip, aptamer-based bio-naogate, nucleic acid
hybridization, DhITACT-TR chip-based, graphene-FET, Au/
Ag nanoparticles based electrochemical biosensor, optical
biosensor, and surface plasmon (SPR, SERS, and QCM)
based innovative platforms could pave the efficient ways of
rapid, highly sensitive and more promising biosensing cum
diagnostic devices for COVID-19 and other unprecedented
pandemics.

Acknowledgements  The authors are thankful to Director, CSIR-

National Chemical Laboratory, India for constant support and encour-
agement. Authors are indebted to Science Engineering and Research
Board (SERB), New Delhi, India for providing funding under CRG
Short-term special call on COVID-19 (CVD/2020/001002).

Compliance with ethical standards 

Fig. 4  The schematic diagram for biosensors for detection SARS- Conflict of interest  The authors have declared no conflict of interest.
Cov-2 virus includes CRISPR-Cas based RNA detection; aptamer-
Au NPs based viral spike protein detection; electrochemical-AuNPs
based viral RNA detection; graphene-field effect transistor biosensor
for virus detection, silicon nanowire-based viral spike protein detec-
tion; non-labeling plasmonic techniques such as Surface Plasmon References
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